Introduction: Masters and traditions -- Pt. 1: France and the classical origins of ballet. Kings of dance ; The Enlightenment and the story ballet ; The French Revolution in ballet ; Romantic illusions and the rise of the ballerina ; Scandinavian orthodoxy : the Danish style ; Italian heresy : pantomime, virtuosity, and Italian ballet -- Pt. 2: Light from the east : Russian worlds of art. Tsars of dance : imperial Russian classicism ; East goes west : Russian modernism and Diaghilev's Ballets Russes ; Left behind? : Communist ballet from Stalin to Brezhnev ; Alone in Europe : the British moment ; The American century I: Russian beginnings ; The American century II: The New York scene -- Epilogue: The masters are dead and gone.